A MAIL-ORDER BRIDE

I guess it’s my own fault, but when I read about The Golden Bride, a Yiddish operetta from 1923 that was lost in the 40s, found in the 80s, and is now enjoying its first off-Broadway run at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, I envisioned something covered with the thick patina of history and folklore, textured with age, quietly exotic, offering insights into a bygone era and a forgotten mythology. Instead what I found was a silly romantic comedy, naïve, sentimental, its staging by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene so professional, so polished and Hollywood-ized, that whatever texture the show might have had was now completely buffed out.

Abandoned by her parents at age 4, Goldele (Rachel Policar) learns upon reaching maturity that she is the heiress to a fortune in America. She leaves her Russian village for New York, promising her hand to whichever of her suitors can find her long lost mother. The primitive but serviceable story (libretto by Frieda Freiman) is finally little more than an excuse for the 17 buoyant musical numbers, composed by Joseph Rumshinsky and performed with joy and gusto by the gifted singers. The show boasts some outstanding vocalists, its stars Ms. Policar, and Cameron Johnson as Goldele’s childhood love Misha spring to mind. But most of Louis Gilrod’s lyrics say little, with songs going on twice as long as they need to. And although crisp and bright, as conducted by musical director Zalmen Muenter, the pieces lack sufficient emotional weight on occasions when such weight would be useful.

In general there is a flatness to this production, co-directed by Bryna Wasserman and Motl Didner, evident immediately in Yael Lubetzky’s lighting and John Dinning’s set. The intention here seems to be to recreate, sort-of, what this show might have looked like at Kessler’s Second Avenue Theater 92 years ago. But the result is just a flat-looking set. For all its professionalism, The Golden Bride feels like it was designed to be as inoffensive and square as possible—Yiddish-light, one might call it—for its mostly older Jewish audience. That said, as a bit of quaint musical entertainment, the show works. But if you do go, take your seats early. My experience is that the theater overbooks, which leads to hysteria among the ushers and a default first-come, first-served seating policy, whether one is in one’s own seat or not.